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Jon Zellner
June 29, 2020
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. - Interviewed by Alexis, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals patient and traumatic brain injury survivor.
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Jon, tell me about yourself in 30 seconds.
I grew up outside New York City. No brothers or sisters. I met Wolfman Jack, a famous DJ back in the day, when my mom took me on the NBC tour when I was in second grade and thought that was just the greatest job in the world and from that moment, I knew that I wanted to be on the radio and program radio stations. I met my wife Patty in college. We got married very young and moved all over the country. We’re married for 31 years now and have three incredible children, Jenni, Xander and Mackenzie.
How long have Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and iHeart partnered together?
Our radio stations have been doing radiothons and other fundraising events for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals for over 15 years and since then, our listeners have raised over 100 million dollars for their local children’s hospitals.
Why is supporting a cause like the needs of children’s hospitals important to your business?
Most importantly because while iHeartRadio is a national brand, all of our 850 plus radio stations in over 150 cities across the country are designed to serve their local communities and because all the money raised for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals helps each individual local hospital, it creates opportunities for our brands to really make a difference for kids and families in their community.
How does the mission of CMN Hospitals align with iHeart’s mission and values?
Our company’s mission is to be everywhere our listeners are and to provide them with music, information, entertainment and content that they can’t get anywhere else. The mission of local children’s hospitals is to be there for kids and families when they need them so both companies are aligned in that iHeartRadio is our master brand. Our 850 radio stations represent our local brands and Children’s Miracle Network is a national brand and the 170 individual chiildren’s hospitals represent the local brands.
During this pandemic, how have you seen radio respond?
During times of crisis is when radio really shines. Radio is about companionship and broadcast radio continues to hold a unique place in American culture, especially during a time of crisis -- like this pandemic. Our team at Critical Mass Media is generating daily research and analytics about the COVID-19 situation specially designed to help our air talent and programmers speak in-the-moment to the ever-changing mindset of our listeners. Personalities inspire listeners and help them cope with their anxiety and concerns during times like these and this data helps our talent communicate more effectively with their listeners and serve their local communities across the country with the latest information.
I think one of the reasons radio still reaches 93% of the country after all these years is because the voice on the other side sounds like a friend. Aside from updates and timely information, we’ve spent the past couple months connecting with families who have been impacted by the virus, helping local organizations, celebrating local heroes and we’ve done some amazing virtual events with artists like the iHeartLiving Room Concert on FOX, First Responder Fridays, the iHeartRadio Virtual Prom, the Living Room Concert Series and last weekend, we launched a series of Commencement podcasts with some of the most inspirational speakers in the world and we’ve done daily updates showcasing local businesses doing good things for their clients and employees during the crisis. All that said, our talent needs to understand the balance needed and that might mean that they DON’T talk about the crisis all the time. While much of America remains concerned about the situation, they also turn to our brands and our trusted personalities to provide them with entertainment and stress relief.
What was your first job?
My first paid job was working for my Dad’s store. He ran a men’s retail clothing store in New Jersey and I worked there throughout grade school and high school. My first paid job after college was a news writer and reporter for the Associated Press. My job was to take print copy and turn it into broadcast copy so I’d take four or five paragraphs and cut it down to a few sentences, which was great experience. Mark Twain’s famous quote is “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Henry David Thoreau said “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.” Being able to edit yourself in writing and for talent to do that on the air is a very important and unique skill.
When you were young like me, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As I mentioned, I’m one of the rare people who knew what they wanted to do at a very young age. I grew up in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey and I was fortunate enough to go to Ramapo High School which had a student-run radio station called W-R-R-H which I started to work at when I was a freshman and I became the program director when I was a junior.
What is your secret wish?
I wish there was a way for all Americans to have an equal chance to fulfill their dreams by starting at a more level playing field and that starts with better and more accessible education and truly recognizing the value of teachers in our society.
What’s your favorite thing to do on the weekends?
As long as I’m with Patty and my family, it’s a good weekend. We love hiking and skiing in the winter and anything that gets us outdoors. But, we also love board games and watching movies at home.
If you could share one thing about yourself that most people don’t know, what would you share?
I’m a pretty open book and everyone knows about my love of music, my weird knowledge of music charts and my childhood desire to be the 7th Brady Bunch kid. But, very few people know that while I always wanted to be in radio, I also, at one time, thought about being an architect. Maybe because that’s what Mike Brady did. I’ve always loved to look at house plans and interior designs. I watch almost every show on HGTV and so even though I’m not handy at all, I’m inspired to watch others who are.
What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned in your career so far?
I’ve learned that arrogance is a sign of insecurity and that people like to be managed with love and trust as opposed to fear and doubt. And that, especially in a work environment, you should treat people not like you want to be treated but how you think they want to be treated. And strong managers are able to coach and mentor people on their team differently so they feel empowered and are able to share in the vctory of the win because they understood the overall goal from the start.
How do you see your company changing in two years? How do you see yourself creating that change?
We’re constantly maximizing our investment in data and technology to fully utilize the assets we’ve built. From a programming perspective, the most important aspect of our modernization is our cutting-edge technology and AI, which continues to transform how we program music on many of our stations. This technology analyzes more than 3,000 data points per song, more data than the human mind could process for every song we play, and customizes and localizes it for our stations in ways we couldn’t before, which results in more opportunities for new music and artist development while ensuring that our listeners still have a local experience.
Innovation is important to both of our organizations. What is one area where you see innovation happening in the media industry?
I think any forward-thinking successful company is going to embrace new technology and data capabilities but I also think that the COVID-19 situation is causing many businesses to think differently about how they operate.
When you look at our situation, we’ve been able to function and operate over 850 radio stations nearly virtually for the past two months, so if you were building the company from scratch today using 2020 technology, you would gather the best music schedulers, research analysts, imaging and production specialists and data experts and focus their efforts on what they do best. They could be based anywhere. You would combine that team with a group of smart programmers, air talent and sales representatives across the country where they would deliver the most local impact. And taken together they deliver the best possible listening experience to communities nationwide. I believe that any company that’s been around longer than the internet probably has an outdated business model so not just media companies but all companies should constantly be re-evaluating their infrastructure and asking themselves what it would look like if they were a start-up.
How do you approach programming stations across the country for audiences with diverse interests and tastes?
It’s a great question because every one of our markets is a little different and music or content that works in one city may not work somewhere else. Our classic rock station in New York sounds different than our classic rock station in Indianapolis. You may hear more Bruce Springsteen in New York and more Lynyrd Skynyrd in the south and the Midwest. And some of the content that our talent is known for do well in some places but may not work in others. The good news is that every iHeart programmer has access to a wealth of expertise and data inside the company and the best programmers know how to utilize that information and combine it with their own expertise and knowledge, to deliver a unique brand that’s customized for their market and their listeners.
What is the one characteristic you believe every leader should possess?
There are quite a few but I’d say that honesty and integrity are probably the most important. When I became a manager for the first time, someone told me that people don’t care what you know until they know you care. Sometimes leaders are too focused on showing their team how much they know, which only works if the team believes that their leader is their advocate. But good leaders are able to communicate a clear vision to their team and empower and inspire them to work together to achieve it and then give the members of the team all the credit.
If there’s one thing you could encourage others to do to make the world a better place, what would it be?
I think it would be for people to use their voices and their social media platforms to spread the word about organizations doing good in our communities. There’s so much negativity on social media and in the news every day and it’s being pushed down from the highest levels of our country. Instead of posting a mindless video on Tik Tok or sharing something political just to get a rise out of people, how about sharing a fundraiser that a local non-profit is hosting or letting your followers know about a cause that’s meaningful to you and encourage them to get involved. After what we’ve been through over the past few months, we need to hear about some good news for a change.
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